The menu
These 9 are the ones where the answer is a definite YES. For everything else there is the contact form.
Virtual tours for property
The buyer walks through the flat before they have even left the house.
3D portraits and figures
A person, a child or a dog, scanned and printed. A photo you can pick up.
Drone photo and video
Some things are only visible from above. Roofs, for instance.
Objects and reverse engineering
Object in, file out. And a CAD model you can actually edit, if you need one.
Spare part reproduction
The manufacturer says it's discontinued. The printer disagrees.
Foot scanning and comfort insoles
An insole for your foot, not the average foot. Comfort, not medicine.
3D printing
File to object. There are enough printers that your job doesn't sit behind somebody else's.
Scale models
For when the surface has to be smooth and the layer lines can't show.
Awards, trophies and corporate gifts
A trophy or a gift whose shape isn't from a catalogue. Your logo, your form, your run size.
What the work gets done with
Every machine here is here because one specific job demanded it and what I already had couldn't cope. From the outside it looks like a considered investment plan. Honestly it was a run of decisions, each of which seemed entirely sensible at the time.
Matterport Pro3
A professional-class LiDAR scanner. The same kit used to survey hotels and factories. Works outdoors in sunlight, covers a flat in a day. It costs enough that nobody buys one out of curiosity.
Einscan H2
A handheld scanner with two light sources that cost more than some second-hand cars. White light for technical parts, infrared for people. It doesn't dazzle and doesn't get confused by someone who breathes, or who is four years old.
Einscan SE V2
A desktop scanner with a turntable. Controlled light and a fixed distance give repeatable results on small parts. For when a thing has to be accurate rather than merely recognisable.
iQube S
A dedicated foot scanner. Geometry in seconds, with no plaster and no casting foam. Feet stay clean.
Drone
A light-class machine for photo and video. More flexible flight rules and no long clearance wait. Shows what simply cannot be seen from the ground.
The printers
Latest-generation machines: multiple nozzles, dissolvable support, an enclosed chamber for technical plastics and resin for fine detail. Enough of them that your job doesn't queue behind somebody else's.
Every machine also comes with what it doesn't do. The honest list is on the equipment page.
See the equipmentMains power is optional
The whole kit runs on batteries. That means scanning also works where there is nothing behind the light switch yet: a half-built house, an empty plot, a cellar, a warehouse, a site at the end of a forest track.
A charged Anker Solix power system comes along too, top of the line, enough to run a full working day with nothing plugged in. The foot scanner needs power to work and a bigger object takes long enough that an ordinary battery would give out. Either way, it just doesn't happen.
If the site is genuinely in the middle of nowhere, we'll sort it out. If it comes to it I'll ride an enduro up the hill, power system in the rucksack. Hasn't happened yet, but the offer stands.
Why one place helps
Most providers do either spaces or objects, either scanning or printing. Here a job can start with a scan and end with a part in your hand, without a second company, a second file format and a second timetable appearing in the middle.
In practice it means you don't have to be the project manager between three suppliers.
Who it's for
- Estate agents and developers: virtual tours, floor areas, aerials
- Manufacturers and workshops: spare parts, jigs, fixtures, reverse engineering
- Small manufacturers and product developers: prototypes and short runs
- Car enthusiasts and restorers: parts that are no longer made
- Furniture makers and joinery workshops: scanning profiles and details
- Shoe shops and sports retail: foot scanning as a service
- Private clients and families: 3D portraits, figures and gifts
- Pet owners: a figure of the dog or the cat
- Museums, galleries and collectors: digitisation and reproductions
- Artists and designers: scanning forms and printing models
- Event organisers: recording an exhibition, a stage or a trade stand
- Film and games people: real objects and spaces turned into digital assets
- Dental technicians, jewellers and makers: fine detail scanned and copied
- Insurers and valuers: recording the condition of a thing
- Schools and clubs: teaching models, samples and aids
- Cafés, hotels and salons: a tour for your own website
- Anyone with one daft idea and nobody to build it
Your data
Scans and working files are held on dedicated, redundant storage that is protected against hardware failure. Access is restricted, and nothing is passed to third parties without the client's consent.
In practice that means two things. If you need another export of the same site a year from now, the source data is still there and the work does not have to be commissioned again. And material that isn't meant to circulate doesn't circulate.
Retention is agreed as part of the order. On request, data is deleted as soon as the work is handed over.
Straight talk, before you write
4V3D is a family company. Four Viils dealing with everything three-dimensional. There is no deeper meaning behind the name, and no marketing agency behind it either.
A small workshop where nobody wears a tie and where the sentence heard most often is “could this be done somehow?” The answer is surprisingly often yes.
Two things follow from that. First, you deal directly with the person who does the work; there is no salesperson in between. Second, if I think your idea won't work, or that you shouldn't order it at all, you'll hear that before the invoice rather than after.
Tell me what you've got in mind: a flat, a shot from the air, a broken part, a gift. Write it like you'd tell a friend. I'll find the technical words.
Write to me